CATCHING UP WITH... MICHIGAN QUARTERBACK RICK LEACH SEPTEMBER 6, 1976

The cover subject of our college football preview issue 20 yearsago was Michigan's 19-year-old sophomore quarterback, RickLeach. SI showed prescience in giving the youngster suchtreatment: That year Leach would lead Michigan to the first ofthree straight Rose Bowls, and in his four years at Ann Arbor hewould set two NCAA records: most touchdowns running and passing(79) and most points responsible for (474), both since broken.Leach was drafted by the Denver Broncos of the NFL and theMontreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League, but he choseto pursue a career in baseball. That seemed wise: Leach, aMichigan native who had played centerfield brilliantly for theWolverines, was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the first roundin 1979, and he looked forward to playing close to home. But hewould learn, as we all must, that our best-laid schemes often goawry.

Leach was not an instant sensation with the Tigers. He spent twoseasons in the minors and another two bouncing between thebushes and the parent club. He finally stuck with Detroit in1983, but he hit only .248 in 99 games as a part-timer. TheTigers dropped him in 1984, and he signed a minor leaguecontract with the Toronto Blue Jays. He played his first fullseason in Toronto in '86 and had his best year, batting .309 in110 games. Then the trouble began. In '87 Leach went AWOL fromthe Jays for several days. The absence was dismissed under therubric of "personal problems"--but, in fact, he had begun usingcocaine. He signed with the Texas Rangers as a free agent in1989, and the next year he signed with the San Francisco Giants.

Leach was immensely popular with Giants players and fans. He hit.293 in 78 games, but then he came a cropper: On Aug. 6, 1990,after failing a drug test, he was suspended for 60 days andordered to undergo rehabilitation. Leach rejoined the Giants forspring training in 1991, but San Francisco, loaded withoutfielders, released him. He was profoundly disappointed, buthe said he had emerged from the ordeal of drug rehab "realizinghow much I've really got going in my life."

Happily, Leach has gone on with that life. He works as aninsurance agent in Farmington Hills, Mich., where he lives withhis wife, Angela, and their three sons. Rick has, at 39,achieved blessed serenity. "I made a mistake," he says, "and Iwas held accountable for it. There really is nothing more tosay."

Before he became the premier postseason performer of his generation, the Patriots icon was a middling college quarterback who invited skepticism, even scorn, from fans and his coaches. That was all—and that was everything